from That Hand Is White

Saksiri Meesomsueb

Sleight

A beggar at the crack of dawn comes with an empty cup, just as a line of monksserenely with their bowls set out for alms.All day until the market ebbsa shop-woman will stretch the truth,while from around the temple ring the soundsof dealing amulets and talismans.Later in the day will be a magic showset in the market’s central square,while in the temple miracles will be proclaimed.A man of stunts will confront a cobraas men of faith face down their worldly lusts.Suppressed, the serpent has no power to harm;Subdued, such cravings have no power to heat.Soon, they’ll unleash a mongoose on the snake;of making merit, the temple chimes on still. Into the temple, lots of people crowd;as many, too, to see the show.A little boy bursts through the ranks in timeto catch them take the snake out of a sack. Back home, his mother shows off a phallus charm,while he raves about the cobra, spitting as he speaks. You’re making too much of what you saw, dear.They only took a snake out of a sack.

Saksiri Meesomsueb (b. 1957 in Nakhon Sawan Province, Thailand) loved reading and writing as a child and began formally studying both while a student of contemporary painting in Bangkok between 1972 and 1976. Since the publication of his first collection of poems in 1983, he has been active and well known as a poet, painter, musician, songwriter, newspaper columnist, and lecturer on the arts. Winner of the Mekong River Literature Award as well as the Silpathorn Award from Thailand’s Ministry of Culture, Meesomsueb’s third and most popular collection มือนั้นสีขาว (That Hand Is White) received the 1992 Southeast Asian Writers (S.E.A. Write) Award.

Noh Anothai was born in Bangkok, Thailand, but grew up outside of Chicago, Illinois. He was a researcher with the Thailand-United States Education Foundation (Fulbright Thailand) between 2012 and 2013, when he first began translating Thai literature into English. Since then, his translations from Thai and original works have appeared in journals like Ecotone, Unsplendid, and Structo. His Poems from the Buddha’s Footprint, one of only two full-length translations of Thai national poet Sunthorn Phu (1786–1856) in thirty years, as well as the first to be published in the United States, is forthcoming from Singing Bone Press. This is his second appearance in Asymptote.